James Emanuel

Infobox Writer

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image_size = 150px
name = James Emanuel
caption =
nationality = American
birth_date = birth date and age|1921
birth_place = Nebraska, USA
occupation = poet
known_for = poetry
website = http://www.james-a-emanuel.com/
footnotes =

James Emanuel (born 1921) is a poet and scholar from Nebraska. Emanuel, who is ranked by some critics as one of the best [ [http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/nprn/news/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=908445 Nebraska-Born Poet Finds Fame Overseas] by Avishay Artsy, Nebraska Public Radio interview with Emanuel, accessed May 6, 2006.] [Interview with James Emanuel by Dan Schneider, Cosmoetica, reference to wording of Dean's Award for Distinguished Achievement received by James Emanuel in 2007 from Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.] and most neglected living poets, [ [http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2738/James_Emanuel_a_poet_from_afar James Emanuel, a poet from afar . . .] , African American Registry, accessed Nov. 29, 2007. This citation states, "In the annals of American poetry it is hard to picture a more neglected poet than James A. Emanuel."] has published more than 300 poems, 13 individual books, an influential anthology of African American literature, an autobiography, and more. He is also credited with creating a new literary genre, jazz-and-blues haiku, often read with musical accompaniment. [http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2738/James_Emanuel_a_poet_from_afar___ African American Registry Page on James Emanuel, accessed May 6, 2006.]

Life

Born in Nebraska in 1921, Emanuel was raised in the state. He spent his early years in the western United States where he worked at a variety of jobs. At age twenty he joined the United States Army and served as confidential secretary to the Assistant Inspector General of the U.S. Army Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. [http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2738/James_Emanuel_a_poet_from_afar___ African American Registry Page on James Emanuel, accessed May 6, 2006.] After his discharge, he did his undergraduate work at Howard University and obtained graduate degrees from Northwestern University (M.A.) and Columbia University (Ph.D.). He then moved to New York city where he taught at the City College of New York (CUNY), where he is credited with introducing the study of African-American poetry. Emanuel also worked as editor, with his first editorial project being the publication of a collection of poetry by Langston Hughes, whom Emanuel considered his mentor. [ [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/2003/ms003041.pdf James A. Emanuel: A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress] , prepared by T. Michael Womack, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 2000. Accessed May 6, 2006.]

Emanuel has also taught at the University of Toulouse (as a Fulbright scholar in 1968-1969), at the University of Grenoble, and at the University of Warsaw. He currently lives in Paris, France.

Writings

Poetry

Emanuel is a published poet, scholar, and critic. As a poet, Emanuel has published more than 300 poems and 13 individual books. Emanuel has been called one of the best, and most overlooked, poets of his time. [ [http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/nprn/news/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=908445 Nebraska-Born Poet Finds Fame Overseas] by Avishay Artsy, Nebraska Public Radio interview with Emanuel, accessed May 6, 2006.] Critics have put forward several reasons for Emanuel's poetry being neglected by the larger literary world, including the fact that Emanuel writes more traditional poetic forms, that he no longer lives in the United States, and the fact that he refuses to take part in the politically correct world of Black academia. [ The Not So Strange Emanuel Case by Dan Schneider, Cosmoetica, accessed May 6, 2006.]

Emanuel is also credited with creating a new literary genre, jazz-and-blues haiku, which he has read to musical accompaniment throughout Europe and Africa. [http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2738/James_Emanuel_a_poet_from_afar___ African American Registry Page on James Emanuel, accessed May 6, 2006.] For this creation he was awarded the Sidney Bechet Creative Award in 1996. He was also awarded the Dean's Award for Distinguished Achievement in 2007 from Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences [ Interview with James Emanuel by Dan Schneider, Cosmoetica, accessed Sept. 30, 2007] and has also been honored with a John Hay Whitney Award, a Saxton Memorial Fellowship, and a Special Distinction Award from the Black American Literature Forum. [http://www.terebess.hu/english/haiku/emanuel.html "James A. Emanuel's Haiku " in Terebess Asia Online, accessed Sept. 30, 2007.]

Criticism and letters

In addition to his poetry, Emanuel also edited (with Theodore Gross) the influential anthology of African American literature "Dark Symphony: Negro Literature in America." The anthology, published in 1968 by Free Press, was one of the first major collections of African American writings. [ [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/2003/ms003041.pdf James A. Emanuel: A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress] , prepared by T. Michael Womack, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 2000. Accessed May 6, 2006.] This anthology, and Emanuel's work as an educator, heavily influenced the birth of the African American literature genre. [ [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/2003/ms003041.pdf James A. Emanuel: A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress] , prepared by T. Michael Womack, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 2000. Accessed May 6, 2006.]

In 2000 a collection of Emanuel letters and writings were placed in the United States Library of Congress. Included in the letters were correspondence with Gwendolyn Brooks, Ralph Ellison, Benjamin O. Davis, Ossie Davis, W. E. B. DuBois, and many others. [ [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/2003/ms003041.pdf James A. Emanuel: A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress] , prepared by T. Michael Womack, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 2000. Accessed May 6, 2006.]

Emanuel has also edited five "Broadside Critics" books (1971-1975) and written a number of critical essays. His other published works include a memoir, "The Force and the Reckoning", published in 2001.

Bibliography

*"Langston Hughes" (New York: Twayne. 192 pp.)
*"Dark Symphony: Negro Literature in America" with Theodore L. Gross (New York: Free Press. 604 pp.)
*"The Treehouse and Other Poems" (Detroit: Broadside Press. 24 pp.)
*"Panther Man" (Detroit: Broadside Press. 32 pp.)
* "How I Write/2" with MacKinlay Kantor and Lawrence Osgood (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 256 pp.)
*"Black Man Abroad: The Toulouse Poems"(Detroit: Lotus Press. 76 pp.)
*"A Chisel in the Dark (Poems Selected and New)" (Detroit: Lotus Press. 73 pp.)
*"A Poet's Mind" (New York: Regents. 85pp.)
*"The Broken Bowl (New and Collected Poems)" (Detroit: Lotus Press. 85 pp.)
*"Deadly James and Other Poems" (Detroit: Lotus Press. 82 pp.)
*"The Quagmire Effect"
*"Whole Grain: Collected Poems, 1958-1989" (Detroit: Lotus Press. 396 pp.)
*"De la rage au cœur" with Jean Migrenne and Michel Fabre (Thaon, France: Amiot/Lenganey. 173 pp.)
*"Blues in Black and White"
*"Reaching for Mumia: 16 Haiku"
*"Jazz from the Haiku King"
*"The Force and the Reckoning"

Notes

External links

Online

* [http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2738/James_Emanuel_a_poet_from_afar___ African American Registry]
* [http://www.james-a-emanuel.com/ James Emanuel's homepage]
* [http://www.thesimon.com/magazine/articles/diamond_in_the_rough/01086_whole_grain_collected_poems_james_a_emanuel.html Whole Grain: The Collected Poems of James A. Emanuel]
* [http://books.monstersandcritics.com/features/article_1378208.php/Featured_Book_Review__another__Whole_Grain_Collected_Poems_by_James_Emanuel Review of Whole Grain: The Collected Poems of James A. Emanuel]
* [http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~richie/poetry/html/aupoem118.html Emanuel's "The Negro"]

Audio

* [http://www.sursumcorda.com/omniversica/songs/omniversica2.ram Online audio interview with Emanuel]
* [http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/nprn/news/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=908445 Nebraska-Born Poet Finds Fame Overseas] by Avishay Artsy, Nebraska Public Radio interview with Emanuel

Persondata
NAME= Emanuel, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=poet and scholar
DATE OF BIRTH=1921
PLACE OF BIRTH=Nebraska
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=